Blogging: Increasing Viewership After You Hit Publish

When you go from having a blog post idea in your mind to hitting the publish button, there is a lot that occurs between then. You may be planning your articles in an application – even creating an editorial calendar.

However, after you have pieced your article together, adding a couple of photos, and even made your article SEO ready with a plugin, this may still not feel like enough. You may not be getting the viewers or the growth in audience that you were expected or hoped for. This may be due to the things you aren’t doing, what you aren’t doing outside of WordPress (or your personal blogging client) for that matter. Today, we will unlock what you should do with your posts right now and in the future to increase your potential audience.

Take the Initiative to Share

One of the easiest ways to increase viewership with your post is to take the initiative and share the post yourself. First off, immediately after a post is published, share on your Facebook and Twitter page. If the article is well anticipated, let your followers know a couple of days before it is published that the article is coming up. From there, the way to get your posts viewed by a larger platform is by sharing on websites like StumbleUpon and through the various search engine websites. This, in conjunction with the SEO configured in WordPress, will give you an optimal level of viewership. Lastly, don’t feel ashamed to share your post when a friend or family member needs help with a topic your article can help with.

Join the Conversation

The comments are flowing in, don’t look upon them as a scale of your popularity, look at comments as the start of a conversation with your audience. Use this as a time to talk about the topics, answer any questions, and ponder even further. This increases viewership because many times, comments are incorporated into SEO. When an individual searches about a subject and it is covered in the comments, this can be shown in the Google search for example.

Revive Old Topics

You may have covered a subject a while ago. Even if it is a couple of pages within your website, this doesn’t mean that it should be ignored. Revive the article by mentioning it from time to time in appropriate places. WordPress also allows you to add a section for “Related Posts” as well. If a commenter brings up a related topic, point them to an article that may guide or inspire them further. Reviving old articles keeps them relevant and higher up in the social engine. Reviving old topics doesn’t just include finding more ways to plug them. Throughout the year, when you find free time, go through your posts and also update the tags and WordPress SEO section – updating it with tags and topics that are relevant with a recent event or time.

Analytics, Analytics, Analytics

Analytics is the best thing to go to or look at once an article is published. Giving you a window into how an article is performing after the fact, analytics also allows you to know why certain articles are increasing in popularity and why some aren’t. As mentioned before, analytics can reveal a spike or plateau in a specific subject which can allow you to tailor your marketing attack. Also, you’ll be able to see how your audience arrived to your website. For example, I use Squarespace for my personal website. Through Squarespace’s analytics, I am able to see what they searched to get to my website, from where did they originate, and more. If you use another client, Google Analytics is the way to go.

Make a Newsletter

Lastly, a newsletter is a small but effective way to increase viewership of your website and more specifically your articles. Newsletters are quick to configure, and in the beginning you can create them yourself in programs like Pages for Mac (or Microsoft Office for Mac and Windows users). They are effective because they remind readers to read your website, present them with relevant information and topics, and are easily shareable to non-readers from your audience – turning them into your own marketing army.

What ways are you increasing your blog or website’s viewership? Share with us in the comments below.

Can you give some more tips on sharing content effectively? I usually hit the Tweet and Stumble buttons to share my new articles on Twitter and SU, but it seems not to work. The number of referral readers is too low :( I can’t find a way to improve that number.